FILE PHOTO – Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the far-left opposition party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed – LFI) and L’Union populaire (People’s Union) candidate for the 2022 French presidential election, delivers a speech after partial results of the first round of the 2022 French presidential election in Paris , France, April 10, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
- Melenchon is key to the second-round runoff on April 24
- Macron hits green to convince the left
- Le Pen denies being a climate skeptic
PARIS, April 17 – The party of far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon gave no voting instructions for the French presidential election after its internal consultations showed most people backed the 24th result.
President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen are looking to win voters who voted for Melenchon after he finished third in the first round on April 10 with about 22% of the vote.
With the electorate fragmented and indecisive, the election is likely to be won by the candidate who can reach beyond his or her camp to persuade voters that the other option would be far worse.
After the first round, Melenchon urged his supporters not to vote for Le Pen, but he stopped campaigning for Macron and said his party would hold a public consultation to provide guidance to the millions who backed him.
According to results released on Sunday from some 215,000 party supporters who took part, more than 66% said they would abstain, leave their ballot blank or spoil it. Just over 33% said they would vote for Macron. Respondents were not given the opportunity to vote for Le Pen.
“The results are not an instruction to vote for anyone … everyone will reason and vote as they see fit,” the Melenchon campaign team wrote on its website.
Pollsters put the overall abstention rate for next Sunday’s election at around 30%, similar to the first round.
It’s not clear what a high abstention rate overall or among Melenchon voters would mean for either candidate. Both Macron and Le Pen were able to mobilize their core support in the first round, but find it difficult to appeal beyond their own camps.
Next Sunday’s voting is a repeat of the 2017 duel in the second round. Then Macron, a pro-European centrist, lightly punched Le Pen as voters rallied behind him to keep her party out of power.
This time he faces a much tougher challenge, although the latest opinion polls put him nine points to ten ahead of Le Pen.
An opinion poll by IPSOS-Sopra-Steria on Saturday showed that about 33% of Melenchon voters would support Macron, while 16% backed Le Pen on April 24. But 51% of people were undecided.
ADVERTISEMENT OF THE MELENCHON VOTERS
For decades, a “Republican front” of voters of all stripes rallying behind a mainstream candidate has helped keep the far right out of power.
But Macron, who has angered many voters with his at times aggressive style and right-leaning policies, can no longer automatically count on that sentiment.
Le Pen is targeting the more working-class, rural part of the Melenchon base by focusing on the cost of living, rising food costs and high post-war gasoline prices in Ukraine.
Macron, meanwhile, is trying to woo the more educated, centre-left and urban segments of Melenchon supporters.
On Saturday he told supporters in Marseille, who had voted massively for Melenchon, that he had heard their message and that his new presidency would focus on making France fossil-fuel free. He called Le Pen a “climate skeptic”. Continue reading
“I don’t know what he’s basing that on, but I’ve never been climate skeptical and I have a program that takes the environment and ecology into account,” Le Pen told France 3.
Macron’s pledges to do more for the environment may not hit the spot with some voters. Green Party leader Julien Bayou said the president lacked credibility on the issue.
“He had five years to act and he didn’t do it,” he told Radio Franceinfo, adding that the Greens’ call to vote for Macron was simply to stop the extreme right from taking power .
Extinction Rebellion climate activists forced the closure of a main square and avenue in the capital on Saturday to protest the environmental programs of both candidates.
Reporting by John Irish Edited by Kirsten Donovan and Frances Kerry